It takes a certain amount of cajones to win any fantasy league. Shouldn’t the amount be two? No more, no less? Uh, well, yeah. I guess I meant size. It takes more than one and fewer than three big ol’ cajones to win your league. Sometimes you need to reach for a top rookie prospect in your draft or take a flier on a emerging talent after only a game’s worth of promise. And sometimes all it takes is trading for the right player going through a turd period, polish that turd and dominate. Right now, Andre Iguodala is my top turd awaitin’ a polish. He’s hurt, his timetable isn’t clear and he wasn’t playing all that well before he started missing games. All of this makes it likely that his owners are open to taking offers for him for something other than a top 30 talent in return. Perhaps a top 50 talent, maybe two top 60 talents. Maybe there’s a guy who enjoys long division and is willing to accept five top 150 talents. He’s become overlooked already this season and is on a stinker of a team, he’s rarely anyone’s top player or even second-best player and yet, he’s among the most well-rounded players in the league; exactly the type of guy that wins fantasy leagues. It helps that Iggy paused his season with horrible shooting percentages and a 13/6/5 line, as owners with a certain player tend to panic more than the owners interested in acquiring that player. He started the season unhealthy and it didn’t improve. Luckily, it seems everyone involved with his recovery is happy to take things slow and ensure when Iguodala comes back, he comes back as the top 25 player he is. It’s worth the risk to send out feelers on a guy that is likely seen as being worth far less than he actually is.

Here’s who else you should add, drop, trade or bench from this week in fantasy basketball:

Add

Wesley Matthews – 4 3ptm/25/6.5/2.5/1.5/1.5/2 since taking over for Brandon Roy in the starting lineup. Why wouldn’t a fella?

Kris Humphries – Averaging 9.5/13/2 blks in the last four games. Switch the blocks with threes and this is what you were hoping Troy Murphy would do after his return from injury. What? You’re too good for Brunette Murphy? A ‘Murphy Brown’ if you will.

Drew Gooden – He’s unowned in 40 percent of fantasy leagues despite averaging 19/11.5 and a little bit of everything else in the last week (two games). He’s not fun, he’s not sexy, but dammit he’s in Milwaukee and that’s just how they do things up there!

Delonte West – There is a window in deep leagues for guys like West. He won’t play more than 26 minutes in most games; won’t ever drop 30 on a team; but he does a little of everything which is more than most teams can say about their end-of-the-bench guys who are mostly upside failures or one-trick ponies. After he plays a few more games, that window will be closed. Don’t be the guy stuck with Greg Monroe wishing for a better life.

Drop

J.R. Smith – He was averaging 9 points and one trey a game … and that was before he was bounced from the rotation and still, he’s owned in 70 percent of fantasy leagues

Beno Udrih – No, don’t drop Udrih for a bag of marbles and an instruction booklet on how to shoot marbles – use your Head, Udrih has more value than that. And no, don’t pick up Luther Head, that’s not what I meant. What I mean is that Paul Westphal hasn’t played the same starting rotation two days in a row yet this season and it’s had an effect on every fantasy option the Kings have to offer. But whereas you just have to put up with it if you own, say Tyreke Evans or Samuel Dalembert, you might want to ditch late-round guys like Beno and his 13/5 in 28 mpg line for whatever you can get for him.

Ishmael Smith – 5/2/4 in the three games since Kyle Lowry replaced him as the starter. Well, it was fun while it lasted (not really).

Reggie Williams – 12.5/3/1 in 27 minutes over his last two games. And really, they don’t improve much if you go back even farther. It just doesn’t look like it’s in the cards for Williams this season unless one of the starting guards goes down. Even then, probably not.

Taj Gibson – 4/6/2 blocks. If he’s gonna act like Boozer’s already back, you might as well do the same.

Brandon Roy – Don’t drop him. Set him down gently. Let him choose his favorite book and read it to him. Do all the funny voices like he likes. And kiss him on the forehead before you go. He likes that. And when you’re finished try to get, like, John Salmons or Mike Conley or whatever for him.

@adam, I was thinking about picking up Kenyon Martin in my 14 team league and stashing him. We play with a games cap per position and he might be useful to swap in to make up some missed games later in the season since I’m saving games at the moment with guys like Baron and Boozer out and I don’t want to plug in the Kleizas of the world right now just to get games played. My strategy is to stay patient and backload the games. I picked up Mike Miller last week who was foolishly cut IMO with this strategy in mind also. My question is do you think Kenyon could produce similar numbers and minutes as he did last year when he comes back? Outside of FT, he was pretty solid last year. Thanks in advance for your advice!

@papafrog: I don’t think it’s an impossibility, but Al Harrington poses a problem. I’m not sure how playing time will shake out once Andersen returns and if Nene remains healthy.

His game is different enough from Harrington’s that I don’t imagine Martin’s per minute averages will dip much (if at all), but Martin averaged 34+ mpg last season. Between his full recovery and Harrington/Andersen, there’s no way Martin averages that this season.

@papafrog: I’d be surprised if he ends the season as a Nugget. That said, I don’t think he’s going anywhere for at least a few months. Just long enough for everyone to be appropriately convinced Denver doesn’t have a shot at the championship.

OK so on one of my teams I ended up with Camby, Murphy, Ming, and Bynum as ‘C’. This was part stupidity and bad luck on my part. Bad luck in the sense the draft was before the bad news on Murphy came out (I figured Camby and Murphy as my primary centers). Stupid in that is still was not smart to pick up 2 injury types as late round flyers (lesson learned). So my question is now who do I hold and who do I fold (if any) now that I know Ming is out another at least 2 weeks. Option 1 would be not fold any and hope that between the 4 of ’em I get 164 games. Option 2 would be to fold Ming for a WW center, but these are not that appealing (Tolliver, Wallace, Mohammed, Turiaf, Bonner, Krstic, Shaq. etc). My inclination would be to hold (I should get 82 games between the 3 risky types) but I am beginning to doubt myself here. Is Ming that better than the names.

Oh thanks for the suggestion to trade Billups for Rose. Have enjoyed the last week.

Some sucker dropped Aaron Brooks in my h2h league. It reminds me of the time I stole candy from a baby, but got caught by its parents, and then tried to explain that “there’s no wrong way to eat a Reese’s”.

@Adam: Oops, sorry stringer, that last question was actually meant for Adam, my error, lol. ADAM, I was wondering what your gut is on Baron being moved before the deadline. His fat contract (you see what I did there?) will probably be difficult to move but I’ve read anywhere from Atlanta in a Crawford deal or possibly even Minnesota (yikes!). Just rumors, of course. Also, Bogut’s elbow is barking, if he is forced to miss time who do you think will fill the front court void there? Is Ilyasova worth a spec stash for the time being? He’s wildly inconsistent but given minutes has produced in the past. 14 team league. Thanks again in advance!

@papafrog: Minnesota with a ninth PG!?! … Yeah, probably. I think it’s more likely, Baron takes over for Bledsoe at some point in this season and finishes his awful season with the Clippers.

RE: Bogut – I’d guess Ilyasova or Brockman. But I wouldn’t recommend picking either of them up until Bogut’s elbow does more than bark. We knew in the preseason this was going to happen. We knew he’d miss a few games here and there throughout the season when the pain in his elbow got to be too bad.

@Jt: It’s still unclear what is ailing Murphy. And until we find out for sure, I wouldn’t offer more for him than you can afford to lose. But, yeah. I imagine there are more than a few owners looking to rid themselves of Murphy at a supreme discount.

@jaw: I don’t love this trade. It’s not bad, but I think you’re taking on too much risk. not just with Iggy, but with the unreliable Villanueva. Also, Cousins has found his way into a short rotation in Sacramento. Gordan is having the best season of his career (and Baron will not likely chip into that again this season) and if Iggy doesn’t work ot, you just traded away his handcuff.

@Adam – JR smith, yes I still have him… Any chance he gets moved this season and is worth hanging on to? I dropped Calderon after his awful start and got burned by the trade news today. Don’t want a repeat with smith. Thanks in advance

@Bbrown: There’s a half decent chance that he gets moved along with Carmelo if that happens. But it’s no guarantee and it’s not likely to happen anytime soon. Unless you’re in such a deep league that there’s no hope of getting him back if you drop him, I’d go ahead and do it.

@Adam: Taj Gibson dropped a 17/18/6 (that’s points/rebs/fouls) the day after you put him in “Sell.” I know he’s still a sell, but this game let me breathe a sigh of relief. I’m trying to trade him but no luck yet.

You know what sucks? When you own Nash and Dragic and Nash is questionable so you wait until game time because you don’t want Dragic in your lineup unless Nash is out but then you can’t make the substitution when Nash is declared as out because you can’t spend every second on the computer waiting for the lineups to be announced so you end up wasting the expected 17/10 from Dragic on the bench.

I just wish I could find NBA lineups online an hour in advance like you can MLB and NFL lineups/inactives.

@24hourjack: The rebounds, yes. The 20 will likely decrease slightly. What’s your bench look like? Who would you bump by replacing Bosh with Odom and plugging in Ginobili elsewhere?

@Jay: There’s not much you can do if you’re not near a computer within an hour for tipoff. However, Rotoworld is as good of a source as any for lineup changes as close to tipoff as possible without being too late.

Adam….this team was autodrafted,and it’s my 3rd team,so rather than abandoning the team,I’m attempting to see what I can do to rebuild it.I’m trying to just grab as many useful players as possible,thats why getting TWO valuable players(Manu and Odom) for one(Bosh,who has been a bit inconsistent) sounded appealing,but I wanted to know what you thought first.

@Adam: what do you think of Barbosa with jack getting dealt outta TOR? Calderon is the obvious new starter, but barbosa played today on sunday and in 21 mins put up a 12-1-5-2 line? Coudl he be fantasy relevant again (20team league)?

@Adam – Leaguemate is looking to trade a PG for an SG. He has Nash, Collison, Holiday, Augustin and Bedsoe. My SG’s Are JRich, Antawn, Tyreke and Afflalo. I have Brooks, Harris and Nelson at PG. JRich just had a tough road trip and the Suns can’t guard wind. Looks like a long season in PHX. Offer JRich for Collison? Thanks!

How droppable is Afflalo in a 14 team league? I don’t want to drop him, but it’s frustrating to roster him at the same time. I was thinking about stashing Delfino, and possibly dropping Afflalo. Yay or nay?

I’ve also been looking at the Birdman’s return this week. I’m even in blocks so he could push me in that cat. My drop would either be Bledsoe or Reggie Evans.

All of this is in the same 14 team league btw. So I guess I’m asking if any of the combination of Afflalo, Bledsoe, Evans is worth dropping for either/both Delfino and Birdman. Thanks Adam

What amazing analysis! I do not say this lightly as I consider myself pretty knowledgeable in fantasy basketball.

Quick question, which two would you choose from the following (my team averages 46.9% (3rd) FG 78% FT (3rd), I’m ranked last in 3s, 5th in points, 3rd in rebounds, 2nd in blocks and TO, last in steals, and 4th in assists in a 10 team league)

@Tony: In a 20-team league? Yeah, he’s definitely relevant. Then again, in a 20-team league, who ISN’T relevant (besides Aaron Gray, I mean)?

@AnotherFalstaff: You could make that offer, but then you have Tyreke and two unattractive backup SGs (is Jamison eligible at SG in your league?)

@paul: Both Andersen and Delfino are likely better to own than the other three. The problem is that both Birdman and Delfino are returning from injuries from which take a while to fully get up to speed. If you pick up either, understand that you may have to park ’em on your bench even after they see playing time.

@Eric chen: Nice of you to say, Eric. It sounds like you’re most in need of threes, steals and points. Delfino and Hamilton are your best bets.